The UpSide dowN king PT 2

It is upside down that Jesus would need to suffer and die. It was part of the difficulty that the Jews had with Jesus. It is troubling for others today to receive him. Men of God should be VICTORIOUS and POWERFUL and CONQUERING.

But a cursory look at the lives of the prophets in Hebrews 11 tells a different story:

Abel, the son of Adam, killed by Cain, his brother.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. ³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even ^pchains and imprisonment. ^{37 q}They were stoned, they were sawn in two,^{1 r}they were killed with the sword. ^sThey went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy—^twandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, and during his own life-time, is beheaded at the request of a young girl.

So it seems that God’s justice then has a less obvious way of working out. God is just. Nothing evil will ever go unpunished, but HOW God does this us upside down.

A king who suffers for his subjects.

Was it God’s will that Jesus suffered? Isaiah 53 says without wavering, YES. “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief…”

WHY?

His soul makes an offering for guilt and shame. My guilt personally...our shame corporately. His death accomplished what no religion could ever do. It brings us into blessed relationship with the Lord of the Universe.

There is ultimate purpose in his anguish.

The justice of God against the treason of our sin will be fully satisfied in his cross work.

Jesus, the righteous one, God’s servant, by bearing our iniquities, will make “many” to be declared righteous. Although upside down, this is good news for all peoples.

So then God is willing to pay the penalty for his traitorous creatures.

He pays not in wealth, as He is owner of all things, but in something far more valuable that money: The precious blood of the upside down King.

This news is radical.

It is hard to believe. This news is so scandalous and odious to my dignity as a human being.

I want to think I can do something to please God. (If not on my own, than with only a little help from God.)

I don’t want to owe everything to God.

I want to think I can remain in control.

I don’t want to believe my sin is so bad, a just and perfect sacrifice had to take my place.

Is it fair that a king takes the place of his subject?

Is it fair his righteous life absorbs the evil of my life?

Can I still be as sinful as I am and have Jesus remain in me?

God says that Jesus bore the sins of many.

King Jesus lives to stand before me and God, as my Protector.

He protects me from the just anger of God for the sin I so wantonly commit.

If this is not true, I have no hope at all.

If it is, we have all the hope we need.

We get to join the upside down King and give ourselves for his subjects, even his enemies.